Behind the scenes with Windows 7

Associated Press writes something that reads like a Microsoft PressPass feature, so much so that I checked to make sure it wasn't. Look, we all occasionally provide a forum for Microsoft to provide its position, but where's the commentary? This is just a rote reprinting of information provided by Microsoft:

Behind the scenes: Why Microsoft made the changes you'll see in Windows 7

Curiously, it didn't involve features post-its scattered around dart board.

To design Windows 7, Microsoft analyzed billions of pieces of data. It studied exactly what PC users do in front of their screens. It tallied hundreds of thousands of Windows surveys. It got feedback from people all over the world who tried different versions of the software.

As a result, every change or new feature in Windows 7 comes with a back story. Here is a sampling of things you'll see in the next operating system and explanations of how each came about.

This should be fun.

New feature: You decide the left-to-right order of icons in the task bar at the bottom of your screen.

Back story: Microsoft's research showed Vista users commonly launching a series of programs, then closing and immediately reopening some. Microsoft realized that these people wanted their programs to appear in the same order on the task bar every time.

So. This isn't all that dramatic, but it begs the question: Why didn't Microsoft logically extend this functionality to multiple workspaces, so true power users could be even more productive? More important, it reveals something about Vista users. They are really stupid if they were seriously doing this.

New feature: Right-click on a task bar icon and get a "jump list," a menu of important or frequently used options for the program.

Back story: Microsoft had resisted the idea of hiding a key feature behind a right click, worried people wouldn't find it. But the data showed most people right-click on icons to see what that might do.

Allow me to be the first to call BS on this one. We're supposed to be believe that Windows users are alternatively dumb enough to close and reopen programs so that icons appear in a certain order, but smart enough that they just right-click everything looking for new features? If this was true, the Office 2007 ribbon UI would never have been necessary, because users are hunting and pecking for new features all the time. And yet, the majority of Office new feature requests over the past several versions has been for features that were already in the apps? Curious.

New feature: Drag one open window to the left side of the screen, then another to the right side to line them up so they are the same size and side by side.

Back story: Microsoft couldn't initially figure out why people were spending so much time resizing windows and dragging them around. It turned out that users were trying to give themselves a side-by-side view of documents for easy comparison.

So, this is an example of a feature that was already in Windows. (CTRL + click the taskbar buttons, choose Show windows side by side.) But in an Office 2007-like way, they surfaced it in a more obvious fashion. So this does make sense. It makes plenty of sense.

New feature: Libraries, or virtual folders that have shortcuts to files that are actually stored in many different places on a hard drive or home network.

Back story: From its Vista data, Microsoft could see people's photos, music and other files were swelling in number and stashed all over the place, not organized into the dedicated folders Microsoft had set up.

Microsoft first scaled back and then finally canceled this very feature in Windows Vista because its technical beta testers found it too confusing. I'm curious why its less confusing now. And really curious to see how users are going to handle Libraries that monitor multiple locations, including those on a network. The copy vs. move stuff alone is mind-boggling. But apparently the typical Windows user is more tech savvy than I expected. After all, they're right-clicking all over the place.

New feature: "Shake" an open window with your mouse to make all the other ones "minimize" into the task bar.

Back story: Microsoft's research showed that people often had six or even 10 windows open at once, which gets distracting. Shake is one of several features designed to help people tame all the open windows.

Microsoft's research never showed anyone shaking a window in frustration I bet. This is a dumb feature.

New feature: Move your mouse to the bottom-right corner to make all your windows temporarily transparent. Then click the mouse, and all the windows minimize.

Back story: What's notable here is what Microsoft didn't do. There's no tutorial or bubble advertising the feature, a small step toward making Windows 7 quieter than Vista. "We want people to confidently explore the system," said Sam Moreau, a user experience manager.

It does gives me confidence when all of my open windows disappear suddenly, so this will be fun for users.

Look, I do applaud Microsoft's efforts to make Windows 7 less "noisy" than Windows Vista. But as I've already explained, it sometimes goes too far (simple vs. easy). For example, Windows 7 hides tray icons that appear automatically when you boot. But it offers no indication that they're starting and using up resources, and provides no way to remove them. You know, a notification to that effect might actually be useful.

Obviously, the work Microsoft is doing with Windows 7 is good stuff overall. But I still find the excuses reasons for many of these features to be a bit of a stretch.

Consider: You may like or dislike the Office ribbon, but at least the reason for it is valid: "8 of our top 10 feature requests are for features that are already in Office. We needed a way to surface these features more obviously to users." In Windows 7, it's often the reverse reaction for me. I find myself not agreeing with the methodology at all. Shake an application window? Hide that applications are starting up? Make it next to impossible for users to figure out how to open a new application window when the application is already running? (Middle click??? SHIFT-click?) It kind of goes on and on. I suspect that Windows 8 will do a lot to smooth out that stuff, because Windows 7 in many ways is too radical of a reaction to Windows Vista.

Discuss this Article 19

I wouldn't discount how huge the taskbar reordering feature will be for some people. It doesn't mean that they're stupid just because they like to have their taskbar windows in the same order every time - just that they are very picky about that sort of thing. I'm sure if you watched them in their non-computer life they would exhibit similar behavior. Personally, I like having the ability to reorder the taskbar windows. I work in about 5 or 6 programs all day long and having them in the taskbar in the same order all the time simply means that I don't need to scan to find the window I want. I can almost click it without looking.
Note: You can also reorder icons in the system tray - another feature I find useful.

They are probably coming for my Mac Fanboy card as I write this, but sounds like Microsoft (in a way that only Microsoft can...) is honestly trying to get to the root of users' frustrations with the Windows UI.
To clarify my parenthetical, Microsoft seems to want scientifically engineer with data points, whereas Apple seems to try to engineer more organically. That's not to say Apple doesn't use scientific data or user testing. It's a difference in how the 2 companies interpret the data they get.
Seriously y'all, I'm trying to stir the pot on this one, just making some observations.

@kenmcnamee I do the same thing with the Dock. I have them lined up like I want them, and even loosely grouped for task.
I find it frustrating when using XP at work that I can't "put them when I want them"
Although I am much more organized on my virtual desktops than I ever will be in real life! ;-)

"But I still find the excuses reasons for many of these features to be a bit of a stretch."
I actually like some of these features that you talk about. Reasons might be lame, but I like them nevertheless. Some of them have been copied from Apple even and some Apple enthusiasts made a big deal of this. Who cares? If providing a good user experience means copying stuff from competitors and improving them, go right ahead. Why reinvent the wheel?

Daniel, I can't imagine who would argue with you. Whichever approach you prefer, there's clearly a huge distinction between Apple and Microsoft as far as design approach in that way; you couldn't be more right. The only argument I might have is that, even as essential as these design approaches are, they *aren't* necessarily the reason you choose to run Mac OS or Windows. Speaking as someone who uses both, I can live with the little UI quirks; it's the under-the-hood stuff that I notice (and curse) more often on both systems.
Paul, it's a bit of an exaggeration to say that window tiling is already in Windows. On XP/Vista, I already use WinSplit Revolution to put windows where I want. I think the ability to drag individual windows is a BIG improvement over a taskbar entry that tiles everything.
But that aside, yes, there is the facility to do this behind the scenes -- something missing from Mac OS and the popular window managers on Linux.
Easily putting windows next to each other without manually dragging is a huge part of what makes me productive on Windows.

Paul,
Don't be so quick to call user's dumb for closing and reopening apps so they are ordered a certain way on the taskbar. I know several very smart people who will open apps in the same order everyday just so they show on the taskbar the same way. And if something causes them to be 'out of order', then they close EVERYTHING and start over. Also, I rather like the shake feature and the feature to make windows invisible for a moment. Sometimes I want to see the desktop for a moment, but not necessarily minimize windows. I use the sidebar quite a bit and sometimes I want to see one of the gadgets-which I don't always keep in the sidebar itself. I drag some of them to other spots on the desktop. I think all of the features you mention are worthwhile and I don't care about why Microsoft put them there. Who cares?

" They are really stupid if they were seriously doing this."
Really, Paul? Was that comment necessary? I happen to be one of the "stupid" people who have been pining for the ability to rearragne taskbar programs for YEARS. Win7's inclusion of this functionaltiy spurred both a "well finally!" and "whoo hoo" comment from me. They've needed to offer this for years.
C'mon, Paul...keep your "stupid" comments for the Apple products, would ya?! :)

I agree with others on here about the taskbar icon placement. Sometimes when I have multiple apps open and close one, then reopen it, i forget that the icon is in a new location because i am so used to seeing it in its previous location.

I guess I'm dumb? Because I'm one of those people who will sometimes close programs and reopen them to get them in the order I want on the taskbar. It's because I'm working and want things in a particular order according to how I'm working with them. I want this beside that and that beside this sort of thing.

A friend of mine just upgraded to the 7 Beta from XP. One of the most annoying things to him was the fact that all files in a folder were autoarranged and that he couldn't turn it off. I looked, and sure enough, I couldn't arrange files inside a folder. More annoying to him than it is to me. I seems like a step forward in a few ui areas and a step back in a (extremely)few others. If anyone is testing any of the newer releases, have they changed this?

"Associated Press writes something that reads like a Microsoft PressPass feature, so much so that I checked to make sure it wasn't. Look, we all occasionally provide a forum for Microsoft to provide its position, but where's the commentary? This is just a rote reprinting of information provided by Microsoft"
Are you just upset that you weren't offered a job with AP?

I have to admit the implementation of Aero Snaps has really helped me out. I love the side by side windows feature so much better in Windows 7 than previous versions. This works especially better for me now that I've got a 23" inch LCD widescreen monitor. I was running out of real estate on my old 17" CRT. I frequently use side by side just as often as I've been using the tabbed browsing feature.
I don't find any of the libraries confusing. If anything it makes sense to set up a template of organization and then you take from there.
I'm also loving Aero Peek in conjunction with the taskbar improvement. It just makes using Windows during multi-tasking just flow and it actually speeds up my work flow. It is great for organizing and keeping an eye on your desktop.
I also have to admit that I'm loving running at full 1080p.

"More important, it reveals something about Vista users. They are really stupid if they were seriously doing this."
Think you're wrong on this one, Paul. It has nothing to do with being stupid. Over time, people develop what I like to call click patterns. Without even looking at what they are clicking they go through a series of clicks quickly.
Is it stupid to always want to have the, say, Outlook taskbar button on the far left so that you always go to the same place to click it? I don't think so. And it's not like you can reorder them.

I guess I'm stupid because I've been using a great little program called Taskbar Shuffle on XP and Vista to be able to drag and reorder my taskbar. It's small and runs in the system tray/notification area and allows reordering tray icons too.
Paul you didn't really explain why you think users are stupid for wanting their taskbar laid out in a specific way. Or is this just a matter of "it's not how I do it, so it's dumb"?

lol, I have to admit that I am a guilty party for the program reordering in my Start Menu.
I also like to right click and discover new features if they are there. This is one way that I learned about what my PC could do when I was a kid with Win 3.11 and Win 95. :) I'm now more of a power user. I really enjoy the new UI features that are trying to make things more streamlined in Windows 7. Vista laid the foundation and jump Microsoft's need to pay more attention to their apps. Go Vista! No matter how much we hate you, lol

To a large extent, I think the "Vista hate" mantra has been overplayed by the media and certain technology opinion writers.
Vista is in the hands of hundreds of millions of people so it can hardly be that bad.

Add me to the dumb people insulted by this post. Can't say I'm a habitual icon re-arranger, but I did this just yesterday at work, and consciously noticed it for the first time I suppose in all these years. I'd shut down Outlook for awhile, then later restarted it.
And it started bugging me that Outlook was the 4th icon. That was just wrong. I paused and considered the situation and realized that normally at work I always start up Outlook first, so I'm accustomed to seeing it far left. And it was bugging me that it wasn't. I reassured myself that nothing was wrong with my PC and it didn't matter.
But it did matter. I couldn't quit noticing it. It was bugging me. So I shut down my browser and whatever else I was doing and restarted them and went about my business with Outlook to the left where it belongs. So I guess I'm dumb but if someone as surf-while-I-work and experimenting as I will do that, I can imagine prudish habitual types who always use only the same two or three programs at work REALLY doing it.